Campaign of the Month:
January 2012

Star Trek Late Night

M'Fatlar

The M’Fatlar homeworld was situated within a few light years of the Eagan system, and was one of the first to be conquered. However, it was also one of the few to offer any serious resistance, and was almost successful. The M’Fatlar were technologically on par with the Eagan; however, they had poured most of their resources into exploration of their own system, for the planets were particularly rich in rare and valuable minerals, and so they neglected their defensive capabilities. When the Eagan first invaded the M’Fatlar system, attracted by the valuable planets, the M’Fatlar held the Eagan at bay for almost three years.

Eventually, though, with their undeveloped military, the M’Fatlar were crushed, and the system stripped. The Eagan feared having such a revolutionary and volatile race so close to the center of their expanding Empire, and so systematically killed every M’Fatlar they could find. Tens of billions of lives were ended within a matter of years, but a few did escape to roam the T’burad Expanse as homeless nomads. Less than 10,000 M’Fatlar exist today, and it is still Eagan policy to kill any M’Fatlar on sight. Now the M’Fatlar are denied work and asylum by most of the Expanse, even in those systems quite far from the Eagan’s sphere of influence.

The M’Fatlar are easily distinguishable from other races for, although they are about the same height and build as Humans, they have four protruding bone spikes from their spine/shoulder blade, usually about 30cm long – a relic from their reptilian ancestry, although they are warm-blooded. They still possess a keen and acute chemoreception sense (much more involved than either taste or smell) which they receive through receptors covering their entire skin. These receptors act like barometers and thermometers for the M’Fatlar as well. For this reason (plus the spikes) clothing is very often only what is needed to maintain modesty in foreign cultures. However, their sense of hearing is not as good as Humans, and their ears are very under-developed, but present nonetheless.

Most M’Fatlar, now completely ostracised from the T’burad Expanse, have turned to crime or subsistence living from old shipwrecks – they have almost become galactic ‘Untouchables’. They travel in small ‘bands’, usually only three or four people, and have very little contact with others of their race outside this nomadic, makeshift ‘family’. Since contact with Starfleet, however, the M’Fatlar are finding more acceptable living standards working with or for Starfleet. The M’Fatlar are a very moral people, and often (though with some dangerous and infamous exceptions) non-violent. This nature probably contributed to their demise.